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tv   Washington Journal  CSPAN  October 31, 2012 7:00am-8:30am EDT

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surprise. at 8:30, we turn our attention to the battleground state of new hampshire. at 9:00 eastern, we'll talk with the chairman of the new hampshire democratic party and later, the senior advise♪ host: good morning. welcome to the "washington journal." sandy took quite a toll on the east coast. as of late tuesday, sandy is responsible for a 250 deaths. 18,000 flights canceled. 8.2 million residents in 17 states without power. it could be days before the power is restored.
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seven of 10 new york city tunnels flooded. some say is a freak storm that cannot be tied to climate change. we will get your take on that. republicans -- 202-585-3881. democrats -- 202-585-3880. independence -- 202-585-3882. you can send us a tweet @cspanwj. we will begin with the editorial page. and their thoughts on this. sandy signals an era of extreme weather. this is what the editorial pages to say. even before citi turned ashore near publix city -- debate was raising in scientific and government circles over whether the monster hurricane nor'easter was a spawn of global warming.
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a lot of the conclusion is that sandy would have happened with or without climate change. but the extra heat and humidity. this much seems beyond speak. because of man-made warming, the united states is in an era of extreme weather events.
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that is with usa today has to say. contrast that with the washington times editorial page. franken storm. it was not caused the industrial revolution. a 2010 study by the national hurricane system predicted global warming would decrease the number of tropical storms by as much as 1 1/3.
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two opposing views for you. return to all of you. outside of washington, we want to -- we will stay inside washington for this first call.
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caller: think you so much. the leadership and our country is acting with incredible shocking responsibility, with co2 levels that are clearly affecting the climate. and it is also surprising that the democratic campaign has not pushed that mitt romney is saying he will approve the keystone pipeline on its first day in office. this is the dirtiest form of petroleum. it seems to have an alberta pipeline from alberta to texas. we are not getting off of our addiction it to oil. it causes cancers and other diseases. there will continue exploring for oil offshore, in the gulf, and that is just absolute
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treason against prosperity. host: the former president was in minnesota yesterday a. here's what yet to say typing the storm to climate change. >> in the first debate, the triumph of a the moderates. the remember what he did? he ridiculed the president. for his efforts to fight global warming and economically -- in economically beneficial ways. he said he will turn back to sea. and in my part of america we would like if someone could have done that yesterday. all up and down. [applause] all up and down the east coast. there are mayors, many republicans are being told, you
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have to move these houses away from the ocean, climate change is going to rise below water level on a permanent basis. if you want to be insured, you have to do this. in the barrio world, barack obama's policies were better. bill clinton in minnesota yesterday. talking about the global climate change and mitt romney's policies on a bat. we will hear from governor romney. he took a campaign event and made it into an egg acknowledgement of the storm and the victims. james in texas. an independent. caller: good morning. host: caller: good morning i am nearly 70 years old. i saw winterset were colder than normal. warmerwinters that were norma
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than normal. and i can remember in texas when, i have seen icicles 4 feet long hanging from the rafters and other times where it barely got cold. the earth has a cycle of warming and cooling cycles. one of the problems with sandy to me, they talk about the infrastructure being over, and the subway damage, the worst in 100 years. one of the reasons i think it is aging is because we are paying out so much in pensions and stuff to the union workers like feiu but we cannot afford any other -- money for the
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infrastructure. how banks that is the topic for the new york times front page. warnings said it could happen here. for nearly 1 decade, scientists have said to new yorkers but it faces certain apparel, rising sea levels, more frequent flooding and extreme weather patterns. police took their first steps toward considering major infrastructure to news that could affect the vital shores and 8 million residents from repeated damage.
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the task could be daunting given fiscal realities. some scientists say would be the best protection against floods and could cause as much as $10 billion. that is the new york times front page on infrastructure for a new york. we will go to new york. on our line for democrats. help me with the name of your town. where is that? caller: 45 minutes outside of the city. ho bank did you feel the impact of the town? -- host: did you feel the impact of the town? caller: a little bit. my friends have a generator. ho bank freak storm or climate
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change? conveying i am going to go with climate change. we do not have a lot of hurricanes like that. like down a south there used to that but we are not. and more frequently we have been having hurricanes and tornadoes. i am leaning more towards climate change given that this is not just random but a reoccurrence. hoping to chris in it, mantegna, new jersey. -- host: chris in new jersey. what you think? caller: i think they should go and help them dig out from the blizzard in west virginia. host: the former president said this is due to global warming. caller: the rest and all of the eco nazis.
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it is an act of god. god did it. i know the storm largely affected the liberal northeast. maybe we should have a more civil unions and game marriages. maybe that will help. host: we must heed this warning and act quickly to solve the climate crisis. dirty energy makes a dirty weather. let us go to james in memphis, tenn. on our line for democrats. good morning. caller: i think the global warming trend is starting to be seen throughout the united states and the world. more floods, morse tsunamis, a much more water coming on land. -- more tsunami is, and much
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more water coming on land. this is the second time in less than a year that it is going into the virginia area at a flooded out areas that have never over flood. water is growing to be a problem for a lot of places that have never flooded before. host: mike, on our line for republicans. what do you think? caller: i think it is whether. as the articles that you thought so articulate read, they stated on both sides, there is no definitive conclusion that can be made based on available data. it is all conjecture, the left is, whenever we have these things, they are running around with their hair on fire, trying
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to draw some conclusions because we use fossil fuels and of this that any other that these storms or indirectly caused by them or what ever. and what you read as stated quite clearly that no conclusion can be drawn from that. host: what about the veracity of the storm. they say you cannot tie it in the, but the extremeness of it is due to rising temperatures. caller: it is relative compared to what. i was watching a show the other night. and they predicted that this would happen again every time every storm. if you go back to the 1950's, during the 1950's over a time span of, i do not know if it was six years, there were at least a half-dozen storms that came up the east coast. andle's sense of history
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how extreme a storm was and so on and so forth is only -- limited to their personal experience or their knowledge of history itself. we have had storms before. we have had many storms before that have come up the east coast. a major storm hit new york, providence, rhode island and that area, i believe it was in the 1932, well before we were able to forecast these things. i do not know. i would honestly have to say that i simply do not know. and no one really does. but to be come up for everyone that has this agenda against carbon energy, bill clinton, these people just -- they are despicable. they really are. they do not know. but they will not say they do not know. that is what is so upsetting. so that is my opinion. ho bang this is the green blog.
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host: next story. human induced global warming has been raising the overall tenor richard the service ocean by about one degree fahrenheit since the 1970's. so global warming likely contributed to a notable for action of the energy on which the storm thrives. he says perhaps as much as 10%. other signs -- looking at the arctic loss as a contributor to sandy. the new york time sister has not been as loss of c ice. -- sea ice. different views for you this morning. we are getting your take on this. we will go to john in new
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mexico. on our line for democrats. caller: good morning. it is a great honor to be on the c-span. i studied this report in geology actually last year at unm, and wrote a report on this report. they use words like unequivocally, climate change is real, they use words like absolutely the climate has been changed. 95% degree of certainty the climate has been changed. now, i drive a ford. and i like driving, like the freedom of driving. i do not want to be a hypocrite. because climate change is real. and you can ignore climate change, it will not go away.
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claiming it is an act of god will not change it. the top scientists have agreed that the ocean level is rising from melting ice around the world. climate change is real. host: here is the washington times editorial. regulationsomobiles will claim hundreds of lives by making vehicles less safe. the environmental protection agencies were on call shut down to water plants that produce af- caller: i do not know there is enough money to throw at the problems. it is very depressing to me.
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because i really think that there is going to be a mentality -- despite the government spending any money at all. there is not enough money to throw at it. i think we need to drive a more efficient cars. if there is not a profit in changing the natural gas, government will not do it. it will not lose money to change their natural power plant to natural gas. there would have political fights. i really think it is a sad day, because america need stood mitt that climate change is real and we just do not have the money to do it. i do not have the answers, but think it is ignorant to ignore it. host: that is john in new mexico. the presidential candidates were sidelined from the storm with
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six days to go before next tuesday's election. here's the headline -- romney balances sympathy and politics. here's what he had to say at that rally yesterday. >> appreciate that people in dayton got up this morning. someone went to the grocery store and purchased things at these families will need. i appreciate your generosity. as part of the american spirit, the american way to give to people who are in need, in your generosity this morning touches my heart. and i appreciate what you have done. we have a lot of goods here, and i know there is more coming in and we will box these things up in just a minute and put them on some trucks and send them into new jersey is a sight of identified that can take these goods and distribute them to people let need them. we will not people to solve all of the problems this morning. people will still be looking for goods even though we have gathered these things, but i
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know that one of the things i have learned is that you make a difference you can. host: extreme weather, freaks' storm our climate change? here is the new york daily news, hurricane sandy, fierce winds slam 168 foot tanker to the shore where it runs a ground on front street and rhode island. this is a picture of it was in the new york daily news. and here from the new york post, some more pictures for you. this used to be 111 homes. this was the site where 111 homes were destroyed by fast spreading fires in queens. flooding it kept firefighters away. it took 12 hours to fight the blaze. many were evacuated and the remaining ones are believed to
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have escaped. that is the story in the new york post. we will go to michigan, republican caller, bob. climate change or a freak storm? caller: a freak storm. my gosh, you are drinking the kool-aid. carbon dioxide actually makes up a lot of our atmosphere. and it is not just america, it is the entire globe. and another thing, can anybody remember this? fraudulent numbers. fraudulent data. these guys are told what results they should come up with. and they keep giving them the numbers they want. and it continues on and on.
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thank you al gore. host: in connecticut, on our line for independents, what was it like for you during the storm? caller: we didn't lose power but we had rains. i do not believe this nonsense when it comes to climate change. years ago there were growing high-quality wine grapes in scotland, something we haven't been able to do. climate always changes. and it will happen 100 years again from now. and you want to regulate the weather? good luck. how much nonsense do we have to take? host: were you watching earlier when we showed the clip of bill clinton in minnesota? talking about global climate
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change and criticizing governor romney's policies? caller: what is he going to do? regulate the weather? good luck. there is nothing we can do. host: you are calling on the independent line. this is an issue that could sway you to vote for governor romney? caller: i would prepared to vote libertarian, but i suppose romney. i cannot vote for the man in the white house right now. i have to vote for the less of a two =. you worry about the sky is falling, it is the falling for over 50 years. and as the hundred year storm will happen again 150 years from now. and all you environmentalists, doesn't oil come from mother
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earth? it doesn't natural-gas? host: we got to the point. on twitter, a 100 year storm. global warming is a cyclical play to extract money out of the people of the earth. new jersey, on our line for independents. you are on. caller: go ahead. -- good morning. we do need to decrease our reliance on fossil fuels. we just can't afford to do it anymore. host: what are you expecting, if gasoline prices go up, some are saying in the news this morning, what impact would that have on you? caller: it wouldn't really have
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an impact on me. but these cars and oil burning equipment. they should be made more efficient. you cannot use the technology that you are using 100 years ago. and have oral burning equipment -- lyders said one oil was $5 a gallon. -- like i said. host: what about nuclear power? some critics believe it is dangerous, others believe that could replace fossil fuels. caller: 13 of nuclear plants 50 miles from where i live at. -- there are two nuclear plants. coal is hazardous to your help. unless they come up with a way to burn it cleaner. it is just dirty.
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host: here is the new york times and nuclear power. excuse me, the wall street journal. reactors at three of the points remained at of service tuesday. a plant in new jersey lost grid electricity forcing it to rely on a backup generator. the reactor, the oldest still operating in the united states, already was shut down for refueling. they said 36 of the 43 sirens intended to alert a nearby communities at the plants were not working. that is what happened at the nuclear power plants because of this storm. early snow pummels west regina,
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story. the superstorm that inundated most of the east coast with rain also varied parts of west virginia under 3 feet of unseasonably early snow. that is our topic for you. freaks from our climate change? bonnie in wyoming. republican caller. go ahead. caller: yes. i do believe that there is no climate change, that the people are right. government and just wants the money. that they can get their hands on the to make them richer. and if we would turn back to god and realize that, even in our constitution, we depended on god and no more. we do not depend on god, god is the only thing that will help
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anybody. and no, i am not a bible- thumper. i believe in god. let us turn back to god and see if it will not work. all you have to do is believe it. thank you. host: we are showing pictures of the subway system in new york. let me throw this number out while you are looking at this come in new york city more than 5 million subway riders face the prospect of competing for seats on 5600 buses. after sliding waters swamped floodwasubway tunnels. that is what it is looking like in new york city. let us go next to stephen in alabama. democratic caller. go ahead. caller: i am from alabama, but i am from florida.
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we are 100 miles from the florida coast. we got a lot of their grain from katrina. but all of the storms before, we were affected by many of those. we are 100 miles and the coast. you know what i am saying it? i think it is global warming. it could be other things and stuff. but the way the pollution and stuff is affecting the world -- there you can see different changes and stuff. that is what i want to say. host: this also from the wall street journal about transportation. riders took a 5 billion trips and public systems and washington, d.c., philadelphia, boston, jersey and the greater new york city area. scena. go ahead.
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caller: i am living in new york. and this is an economy issue. i am looking across the street and new jersey is deadlocked. i look downtown and it is blacked out. all of these people cannot go to work today. their businesses are closed. there are people scrambling. my friends are calling and asking where can i get food? this is a big issue. $20 billion is easily going to be the cost of this. it is all about the economy. we can get more than enough energy. and you wouldn't be facing climate change. climate change is a freak storms come a day are part of climate change.
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we are going to get hit with a big swell storm. i can almost tell you. ask the people that lived in new jersey. 80% of this one town is under water. when it is that happen? we had this storm last year. the exact same timing. i do not think people get it. host: thank you. you are looking at pictures of atlantic city, new jersey. hit pretty hard. the famous board reduced to splinters. the president will be in a new jersey today. torrington the state with chris christie. -- touring the state with chris christie. mitt romney will hold three rallies and florida. and a lot of political back-and- forth this morning in the papers about new jersey gov. chris
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christie praising president obama for a great job for quick action. that is the headline in the the washington times. they note that yesterday the president at red cross visit had this to say, the president made clear that he is expecting the team to remain focused. -- this is a quote from the white house. the president made clear that he is expecting the team to remain focused and lean forward in their response. as a lean forward is the slogan of msnbc, and the slogan of his re-election campaign. they going to say what chris christie had to say to many networks yesterday including to fox and news cumming was asked if governor romney might come to new jersey in view the damage. he replied, i have no idea. nor am i the least bit concerned or interested. i have a job to do here that is much bigger than presidential
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politics and i could care less about any of that stuff. that is the washington times. here's a column about chris christie. the eye of the storm. she says -- white house officials seem to -- by the big bear hug. they speculate that christie who always puts christie first has decided that it's better for his presidential ambitions to be a maverick blue state governor with a democratic chief executive of. pulling an edge over to the extreme-right for the next years. let us go back to phone calls. we will hear from melissa next. and a lesson, before i go to you, let me throw this in. we told you the president would be visiting new jersey. here is a political of a speech. michael bloomberg.
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nyc mayor said that he declined barack obama's offer to visit new york city in the midst of a hurricane asante's aftermath saying a trip to new jersey would suffice. i talked to the president today and is chief of staff about a trip here, what i pointed out to him is that we would love to have him but we have lots of things to do. melissa and a georgia, democratic caller, you are up next. caller: i am 36. since i have had a child i have noticed that, i am for climate change. i am noticing that it seems to me it is getting worse. i remember back in 2003. i was in atlanta. and we had a tremor and i remember it hit the news that we haven't had one in years. since 2003, we had experienced
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quite a few tremors. not on the scale of california. but it makes me wonder, will we ever get to that scale? i am definitely -- i think there is climate change. host: ok. phil, on our line for republicans, what do you think? caller: good morning. before i get to my comment and need to say- i something about the c-span call- in policy with us of being limited to a democrat, republican or independent. i believe that, whether we know better not, we are being forced into a box to look at all of the issues in this regard. and if you do not have 1 foot in either camp, then you step back. basically come a lot of the callers are just repeaters. msnbc, democrat, repeating
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talking points. i believe you all would get rid of this and just last three numbers and let people look at things as individuals. as far as the storm, i think the fact that we are not bringing into this, and that is that the geo engineering programs going on and how they are affecting the weather. there is a great documentary that just came out in august called -- why in the world are the spraying. perhaps c-span could get some of those scientists from the film on into a program on it. that is -- why is it the world are they spraying by michael j murphy. host: more political headlines. here is the free press, gm and chrysler, romney is wrong. republican presidential candidate mitt romney has broadened his attack on a barack obama's auto industry
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restructuring, implying a general motors used aid to hire more workers in china than the united states. it goes on to say that gm quickly defended its performance and said that romney is wrong on this. and here is the wall street journal on that story. even as mr. romney and mr. obama canceled a political appearances tuesday, the two campaigns -- escalated a heated exchange over mitt romney suggestion that the president also bailout had benefited china. he returned to pennsylvania in hopes of returning the momentum. the story wall street journal goes on to talk about that many have come out including those in the auto industry to say that
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the governor was wrong on this ad, that he is running in the state of ohio. we will talk about that more in about 10 minutes when reid wilson of the hot line joins us to talk about october surprises and all things campaign 2012. democratic caller, go ahead. caller: i think one of the things people are not realizing , and people who think the global warming who does not exist -- here's an issue. there was a geologist on cnn in explained that a cold front came in from the northwest, right through chicago. one day last week we were sitting at 80 degrees. the next we were sitting at 40 degrees. we went from 80 to 40. that cold front was directly down to the gulf of mexico.
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it went straight down the east coast of the country straight down to florida. and that cold air mixed with the warm air near florida and that is what spawned the hurricane. or the storm. the point of the matter is, that is real. it was 80 degrees and we dropped to 40 degrees. as the scientists pointed out, it was all the way down to the gulf of mexico and mixed with this warm air in the gulf. and that is would spawn of the storm. that is what i have to say. that is the reality of it. whether you are of the right or the left. you can draw a conclusion from that activity of the weather by itself. host: year's usa today about predicting miss storm.
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a european forecast that closely predicted hurricane asante's onslaught days ahead of the united states and other models is raising complaints that america needs to do better. the one that hurricane sandy would hit on monday, days ahead of other major hurricane models that sought heading out into the atlantic ocean. some are saying we are not number 1 in the world when it comes to predicting these storms. in rockville, maryland. a republican. caller: good morning. i am an independent. host: ok. sorry about that. caller: it used to be called a global warming. the problem with global warming is that the temperature of the earth has not increased in 10 years, is at a standstill. and it seems that the prognosis is that we are going -- going into a cooling period.
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and by the way the change to climate change is meaningless because the climate has always changed. the sahara desert. and the green land was once green. we have a problem in the science. the science of climate change does not consider the sun. the sun is very potent, a very potent aspect of our climate. that is the problem. the sun travels around the black hole in the center of the galaxy and it takes millions of years. each part of this journey has a different results. host: here's more images for you from the newspapers this morning on the aftermath of this storm. here is the new york post, freight in a storm for travelers
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shows a picture -- franenstorm. and here is the new york post with images of a fleet of the taxicabs sittings of march and a parking lot yesterday in hoboken, new jersey. and the front page of the new trailpost, frankenstorm's of ruin and despair. any despair in queens yesterday. in sacramento, calif., on our line for democrats, go ahead. . caller: i go back to a comment made by one of the candidates. this was an regard to a woman [indiscernible] i was wondering if the same person would think it is an act
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of god also. thank you. host: that was wesley in sacramento. let me give the political articles before we conclude here. this is the front page of the washington times. you reach for obama's coattail'' and their front page. democrats in distancing themselves from the presidential candidate compared to to thousand eight. another story, the rnc left with hordes of cash belittle time. late surge of report -- 68 million as of october 17, nearly seven times the amount the democratic national committee had in the bank. adding in cash from other campaign committees, the mismatch was still was stark. 94 million for obama.
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the fed 60% more cash than their democratic counterparts. josh is an independent scholar. host: we have you on the air. turn your television down. caller: i want to raise three points. i agree with the caller in south florida about the geo engineering. i wonder if i can add a few points. there is no other thing in the climate except change. we have people saying about global warming. yes. have a tax onthao every man, woman and child for every action. that has to do with these geo engineers. like basically i did point out that i moved in with a father of
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weapons in a 1967, certified congressionally that her recants caused earthquakes and other such things. this report called could hurricane sandy be a modification at work. host: josh in the pennsylvania geared up next we will turn our attention to the october surprise. the history of campaign 2012. and later on we will start of a look of the battleground states of new hampshire. we will be right back. ♪ >> you know, india has made incredible progress in the last eight years. -- indiana. we have become the fiscal entity of the country and a member of the largest budget surplus we have ever had in our history. it will make it possible for us to strengthen our budget reserve and i believe we can cut taxes.
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you just said that we pay for things in indiana. ok. but when you are speaker of the house, for five of the six years that you ran the state house from indiana ran deficits. when daniels came into power on budgets you helped to write, indiana was $700 million in debt and had a deficit of $820 million. the facts are stubborn things. i would like to know, how are we going to mature and preserve the fiscal integrity of indiana? >> if you would have spent the last 12 years in india rather than in congress you would know your budget has to be balanced. i balanced and produced balanced budgets. i find it almost laughable that a united states congressman would lecture anybody about
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fiscal responsibility. you voted not once, not twice but five times congressman. you voted and the results increased our deficit by 200 billion, billion with a b dollars. >> find a key governors races from across the country on c- span, c-span radio and c- span.org/campaign2012. host: we turn our attention now to the history of the october surprise. or events that happened before an election. our guest is joining us from their studios in washington you wrote that the october's surprise is a long story and mostly exaggerated history. so, why we have october surprises and what are they? guest: the notion of the last
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minute big moment that changes the trajectory of any given rate, started back in 1972 when henry kissinger said that a couple days before the presidential election that there is a possibility of the peace during the vietnam war, just before the election it was seen as an effort to try to get those last few voters that were upset with president nixon over in the vietnam war in his camp. it turns out he did not need them. and in every subsequent presidential race, the media is looking for the big game changing moment in the last month that could move a lot of undecided voters. the problem though is that most of the time, the so-called october surprise either does not happen or can happen in september. i think the biggest thing that moves the 2,000 acres a little election was the collapse of lehman brothers in september 2008. in 2004, reports of president
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george w. bush's service in the alabama national guard popped up in the last couple days or weeks of the election, in 2000 there were reports of a dui arrest that he had in connecticut a couple decades before. in both cases, they didn't move many boats. the october surprise can completely alter a presidential contest, but italy has not done that that much. host: you noted the examples of george w. bush. we know as it is that an october surprise release ways voters. guest: last-minute things can sway voters. i cited examples in that article. not necessarily in the presidential race but let us look the other races right now. in india, the senate candidate murdoch looked like he was slightly above joe donnelly going into the final debate
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between the men last monday. in that debate he made some comments about rates that were taken -- vitter able to be used in a democratic campaign ad. those comments have dominated the states. the political space for the last couple days. and it has sunk mourdocks place. what we saw there was a real moment in which a last second declaration by a candidate, a big mistake, called an october surprise, a self-inflicted october surprise, actually changed the race. they can make a difference, but they usually do not on the presidential level. >> be cited the example of the republican in tennessee. about that.youtalk guest: the freshman who want.
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i think he got the second highest margin against any incumbent democrat seeking re- election in the wave of 2010. now just a couple weeks before the election, one of the local papers has come up with a story about a woman who was a patient of his. they had an affair. and he was on tape urging her to have an abortion. this is not something that goes over well in its socially conservative areas. so now the conservative state senator running against him looks like he has got a chance now, where he didn't earlier. here is an october surprise that is not necessarily something the candidate said was something that comes out in the media, a timely document and dump if you will. it is the first outlet to report to this affair with the patient. the local paper reported another
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affair. this is a race were a couple of timely documented dumps have made which should be a competitive contest into something that is actually a close race. host: what about this presidential election? what could be that already happened be an october surprise? guest: will seen it to game changing moments. one mitt romney a's video about the 47% -- his comment back in may, when that video came out, republicans across the country saw their poll numbers drop almost overnight. it had people really scared the democratic wave would develop. and because it was so damaging, it went straight to the heart of a the worst characters of the republican party that really cause a dramatic change, not only in the down about races, but also in the presidential contest. it got so far apart for a little
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bit that it looked like some of the outside groups might decide to give up on mitt romney's chances and work as fortifying the republican base. and then president obama decided to not through his first debate in denver. and after that event, the democrats saw a similar drop in the polls. they saw it across the board. not just with the presidency. but with the house, the senate. this a late moment, some kind of game changing moment like that can have a serious impact still. but since we had two back-to- back, i think even out at the end. but mitt romney was at his lowest moment after the 47% video came out. and obama was at his lowest out to the debate in denver. host: what about the storm. this is the washington times.
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in game changer. they put sandy as number one. guest: i think of is a good point. i think there is a big risk when any kind of storm bruise. and almost anywhere in the country, american history is complete with mayors and governors who have all snowstorm as badly and ended up losing elections the next year. george w. bush's approval rating never recovered dr. the mishandling of katrina. this is a big risk for obama. his got to show that he was a leader. he has to look like he is engaged, and by the way, there is an election in a week. he flies back from florida, states in the white house, was on the phone with governors and mayors. all day. monday and tuesday. chris christie the governor of new jersey, his state was hardest hit by hurricane sandy, it is made a terrible comments.
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a republican who spend a lot of time bashing obama. makes a really terrible comments about the president and that he receives a lot of credit for the storms handling. it can either show great leadership and an opportunity to sort of demonstrate the power of the white house and the power of incumbency, or you can screw it up and bought everything ended up losing re-election, probably because of it. he is probably leaning gore's the leadership side. they have not been many serious critiques of obama's handling of the storm in the aftermath. what is mitt romney to do? he is in this middle-class. -- mittal area. -- middle ground. a benefit that advantages obama
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more than romney. because there is a defined role for the incumbent and not so much the challenger. host: mitt romney will be at florida state holding three rallies. good to c-span.org for coverage. 8:00 p.m. tonight. on c-span. we will show you mitt romney in florida with the former governor, jeb bush. and joe biden will be in florida as well. coverage today around 3:00 p.m. on c-span, campaign rally in that state. and the spread the jobs report comes out, could that be a game tinder? could that be an october surprise? guest: i do not think so. over the last several months, good news or bad news, these jobs reports are not moving numbers. a big bet is because the average american doesn't really pay attention to jobs numbers. the vaguely no unemployment is
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high and their own personal economic situation is not good. that is their view of the economy. their view of the economy is not clear to be changed with what bls says. david job whether their neighbors have a job. -- they have a job whether their neighbors have a job. is this jobless report comes out and it is really bad or really great news, first of all, i do not think a lot of people will pay attention become a significant amount of people have already voted. millions of people in florida, ohio, every place where democrats are trying to drive early voting and absentee voting. they have already cast their ballots. host: but as good or first son call. bassin rouge, louisiana. bob is a republican there. how are you? guest: not bad.
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caller: i would like to see if it is a game changer, have you looked at obama as a birth certificate lately? byrd says that his father -- it says that his father is not an american citizen, that he was a citizen of kenya. and when you go to the constitution, it says that in order to be able to be president, you have got to have a two appearance that our citizens of the united states. guest: it doesn't say that. that is not accurate. the birth certificate issue has been well litigated. it is interesting to know how much the republican candidates stay away from this period is a clear example of how a party
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wants to divert itself from the most extreme fringe elements of the debate. host: atlanta, georgia, carlos, independent. caller: to all the independent voters out there, i have one thing to say, if you care about your fellow citizens, a fellow americans, as a community, how can you support a candidate for president who basically belittles half the country? it is preposterous that people still will vote for a man who has pretty much does respected poll americans, half of the country. host: reid wilson? guest: mitt romney was right in
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the sense. there are 47 percent of americans that will not vote for mitt romney and 47% that will not vote for president obama under any circumstances. problem with romney's comments is he did not stop there, he defined that 47% in a way that it was a serious gaffe and it caused a big drop if poll numbers around the country for republicans up and down the ballot. that was a problem. i think that was the moment, the 47% video, when the republican numbers started going down. one guy in particular who never recovered was senator scott brown in massachusetts. we are getting the feeling that mid september when the video came out was the last moment in which he was tied with democrat elizabeth warren. now most republicans in massachusetts and d.c. think that brown is probably not coming back next year. host: i want to go back to the "washington times" the game
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changes they said to watch out for in the coming six days. former oakland -- former president bill clinton was there yesterday. guest: remember back in the 1984 race, they still stuck with mondale in minnesota. a competing series about why the two campaigns are suddenly advertising in places like pennsylvania, michigan, and minnesota. the romney campaign argument is the map is expanding, polls are
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closing, and republicans have a real shot at winning all three of these states en route to a big electoral votes been. the democrats say this is a desperate move and they are trying to get 270 a little votes in a hail mary pass manner, using minnesota, pennsylvania, and michigan, because they're not going to win states like ohio of wisconsin. i think both theories have a little bit of merit. republicans have a tendency staff and have over the last couple cycles pimco to states to sort of try to expand the map a little late. i remember dick cheney visiting hawaii in the days before the 2004 presidential contest. he visited new jersey. george w. bush visited california in the waning days of 2000, to put two very democratic states in play. this is a combination between a try to get the obama campaign to spend money somewhere they
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would not otherwise or it is a real move towards expanding the map. the interesting thing about this year is this is the first time since 2004 that we have had a normal election. in 2006 it was a democratic way. 2008 was a democratic way. 2010 was republican. so we don't know what a normal electorate looks like. we don't know the racial makeup or the age makeup. polls all over the place. both parties right now are using polling models that are dramatically different from each other. i sat down with of the national republican congressional committee and the democratic congressional campaign committee, the senate committees, the dnc, the rnc, they're all taking a look at these numbers that are so dramatically different. these are internal numbers, not the numbers they're using to spin all the rest of us. at its core, you have a very
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smart said the people on both sides just looking at incredibly different numbers, because if we don't really know what a normal electorate looks like. host: some are now saying there's a new effort in pennsylvania to be had. here is the new york times this morning -- guest: yes, and we reported on that last week. we got into some of the outside groups were going in. it is also restore our future, a romney super pac. romney opposed campaign itself might be going up into the philadelphia market. this is interesting. the obama campaign is now going to purchase advertising in some of these states as well. minnesota, michigan, pennsylvania, to blunt some of this romney move. pennsylvania, i don't really buy that competitive. i have been keeping a close eye
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on it for a long time. if it is going to be, it's going to be because republicans will be able to turn out a large number of voters if in the western half of the state, pittsburg, erie, johnstown. the darnestown congressional district is now held by congressman mark kris, the only district in the country to have voted for john carey in 2004 and john mccain in 2008, the only district that slipped from democratic to republican in between those two elections. was are the voters president wants, clinging to their guns and religion, the kind of white working-class workers that the president is having the most trouble connecting with. the obama campaign is advertising as well. they have a turnout machine in philadelphia. pacs don't want the obama
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campaign to gin up their turnout machine. i think that machine will start to get engaged and that machine will drive president obama's margin down there. that's in southeastern pennsylvania. host: we're talking about an october surprise in campaign 2012 and the history of it. this on twitter -- guest: she's probably right. many people aboard a voted. there is 1 weeks ago. the average american is paying attention to something other than politics, whether it's their own economic situation or recovering from storm damage in a swing state like virginia or new hampshire. -- many people have voted
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already. ballistics of trying to get around the place after a storm can be a real problem -- the logistics. it's not like either of these guys will have a game changer. the next couple days will be focused on not doing something stupid around the hurricane and the cleanup recovery efforts and trying to turn out there base. i think you'll start to see the announcements of the last the been the two hours and their flights across the country and stopping and rallies all over the place. it will be interesting to see where the two candidates spend their last rally, where they hold their last event of the campaign. al gore went to florida at the last minute for his last stop in the 2000 race. florida turned out to be the deciding state. 2004, john carey did his last event in ohio and that turned out to be the deciding state. what will it be this time,
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romney in ohio or colorado? colorado is a state that probably is the closest tossups data a moment right now. every poll we have seen as shown this state within a point or two. who knows? pay attention to their schedules to see where the battlegrounds are. host: robert on the line. caller: i believe hurricane sandy may go down as an october surprise. it was caused by climate change. the oceans are 1.8 degrees centigrade warmer, causing decimation. global warming and climate change contributes to a large storms. the size of sandy was contributed to it by this. host: robert is commenting on our last question about whether it was a freak storm or climate
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change. let's throw this into the conversation from a tweet -- guest: i'm not familiar with this. any new revelations are not going to change this race at this point. they are sort of cooked in. the atmosphere today is very likely to exist next tuesday. unless somebody does something really dramatic. if somebody does something incredibly stupid, then this race will change, but i just don't see that happening right now. one quick word, i remember someone talking about the early vote, pennsylvania is a state that you can go in very late. the reason they're starting to advertise in pennsylvania so late is because there really is no early voting in pennsylvania, there's no interest in early
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voting. it's difficult to get an absentee ballots out there. it is a state where the vast majority of people actually go to the polls on election day, something like 96% will vote on election day. so there are minds subject to change in a state like that. ohio, virginia, colorado, early voting is prevalent. the state of the race two weeks ago is basically where we are going to be on election day. host: what about ohio and the back-and-forth about this ad that romney put on the air in ohio and the headlines this morning in the "new york times, two american of all motorists -- two american automakers rebut claims by romney? guest: they are trying to undermine president obama's mrs. mara automobile bailout was great for the state of ohio. that has proven to be a very strong message for president,
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something that has gotten him some support from voters that he normally would not do well with in some parts of the country, the white working-class voters, specifically in northeastern ohio, those workers are the ones who benefit from the automobile companies the most. so the republicans need to make it known to other ohio voters that, automobile bailout was not great for the state and did not do everything it possibly could. the advertisement their money is based on a bloomberg report and has since been corrected. it's not good for the campaign majore the ceo's of two car companies saying the claim is not true and we're not going to go build jeeps in china or ship jobs overseas, and one of those companies in ohio.
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it is kind of a fight that the romney campaign has to act because the automobile bailout has been so successful for the president's. host: the front page of the new york times -- let me go to indiana with gordon. caller: it seems to be the issue of benghazi and what i see is a complete media blackout in terms of what actually transpired. i recall watching susan rice. i watched her go on cable.
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i want to the september 25 presentation by obama for the united nations, but it was a terrorist attack. all the while it has come out that there was no demonstration, that there were repeated requests from stevens within hours of his death for reinforcements for security enhancements, two attacks prior to that, in a couple months, and biden goes on the debates and says they knew nothing about it. my understanding of national security -- of, anyway, my understanding is the president has control, is well aware in
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the situation room of the the live feed, is where decisions being made. we've got youryou've point that the benghazi attack is an october ssurprise. guest: almost every day some of the national security riders of the new york times have been doing quite a lot on benghazi and the aftermath of the attack. the run-up to it as well. the conservative media believes that it's not being covered enough. whether or not it is, there are guys like tapper at abc, and the new york times and washington post has done a lot of it, reporting the actual on the grounds scenes. this is an effort to undermine the president's advantage on foreign-policy. but i'm not sure there's much there. i'm not fully versed in everything about benghazi and
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the attack surrounding it, but it does seem like there's a lot of coverage out there from some of the largest news organizations in america. host: sandy is the october surprise. we'll see how this shakes out. ben in tennessee, independent caller. caller: please don't cut me off. i would like to say the bailouts of gm and chrysler benefited nascar, because they took all the money that the taxpayers gave them and put it back into nascar, because there were still sponsoring it and sponsoring events. also, this president does not carry ou -- does not care about the middle class. we have only had one rates on
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our social security. my mother got a $30 raise. it's going on four years now. he gets back in, we will not get another one. the only reason he gave this one was because of the election. host: reid wilson? guest: we actually put up an interesting post last week on the hot line by two republicans who took a look at consumer habits, how much they liked their exports and which sport they like and how that correlates to voting data. nascar is a pretty republican sport. it's interesting to hear they are getting bailout money, apparently. i had not heard that. check that out at our website and find whic sport you like and what it says about your
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politics. -- by doubt which sported you like and what it says about your politics - find out. host: next caller from indiana. caller: regarding what richard mourdock said about this is what god intends, about women. i want to know how he knows what god intends. guest: he made the comments last week that a life conceived through rape is something intended by god. he was referring to a life and not to the act, but did that particular statement that has been dominating coverage in indiana for the last week. it will probably dominate the coverage for the next week, simply because all the attention
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is now fofocused on richard mourdock. this is the republican who ran to the right of dick lugar in the republican primary earlier this year and defeated him, a five-term incumbent who was seeking a sixth term, beat him in the primary. the day after the primaries said something like i really love politics because i get to inflict my views on other people. that's not a great way to appeal to moderate voters. that's why this contest was always a little closer than it should've been. if dick lugar had been the nominee, he would be and gehead clearly. they booted him out. richard mourdock is not a candidate. that allowed the race to be relatively close. a couple points here and there. everybody expected him to win just because indiana was such a reds state and it's pretty
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social conservative across-the- board as well. my parents, the incumbent congressman is easily going to hold on to that governorships in the last couple days here. -- mike pence, the incumbent. there's an internal democratic survey i saw recently banned had donnelly up 37 points and richard mourdock released an internal poll that shows the two tied. that tells me you're not having a very good day in the polling. host: next caller. caller: only good things come from god. the storm is any
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kind of a judgment or anything like that. the bible says israel shelby as the sand of the sea. the president would not meet with israel. it says those who bless israel will be blessed. host: joe is an independent scho -- caller. the callers are talking about god and everything. i am dealing with the question of abortion, dealing with finances. when i look at people who claim you can stand fast and allow abortion to happen and then claim to be a christian, that is completely ridiculous. to have obama doing that and on
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the other hand you have this mormon guy who says you can baptized the dead. i am voting for the lesser of two evils. it's really ridiculous. one of the things i noticed about obama is he gave his speech after the debt ceiling issue, he had the washington monument over his shoulder through the white house window, saying he was glad it was open for business. this was ridiculous, because it is a masonic symbols, 666 feet. on the dollar bill there is a crazy pyramid. and here we are, a mark of death and its 2012. pipa candidates, and i would not
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invite them to dinner. guest: is it not more ironic that the washington monument is not open for business, actually? the earthquake that we had a year ago, the monument is still closed for structural repairs, so there's an irony. host: pittsburgh, pennsylvania, independent caller. caller: thanks for taking my call. what im calling about is think the october surprise is going to be, the voting machines themselves. i cannot understand why romney's son has voting machines in this election. who would give them the contract? i think they should call foul play now and not wait until the damage is done. host: have you heard about this? guest: this is a reference to
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mitt romney's son who runs an investment firm, a venture- capital firm. this gets confusing, but that firm owns another venture capital firm or a piece of that other firm that owns a piece of a company that creates voting machines, that makes voting machines. those machines will be in some ohio counties. there's no direct link. nobody believes there's actually going to be romney votes popping up because his son has some interest in a firm that invests in voting machines. there are real questions about how this election it will happen and how the intricacies of it county's systems and the different kind of voting machines and believers and all these different issues, when anything goes wrong, whether it's because somebody forgot to press the right button or somebody forgot to turn on the machine or because of a software
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glitch that some engineer did not find, when once i anything goes wrong, everything will prickles and lawyers will descend on everything. both parties have literally thousands of lawyers ready to go on election night, whether they will be at the polling places themselves to help people will vote correctly or whether they will be dispatched to a swing state with every count on election night, there will be thousands of lawyers on standby. this is the case all the time now, by the way. in every presidential election since 2000, both sides have lawyered up quickly and have them ready to fight and lawsuit, because the stakes are high. host: here's the headline in the washington post about early voting in ohio.
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today at 5:30 on c-span will cover any event with senator portman , and governor kasich, on early voting in the state of ohio. 5:30 p.m. eastern. now to jim next in franklin, pennsylvania, republican. caller: i highly disagree with s estimatee -- his that the benghazi affair is not the october surprise. i really believe if the electric knew all -- if the electorate knew all the facts, how could a president, the secretary of state, and the secretary of
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defense sit and watch what happened in real time and not send aid to those people, if everybody understood that is what happened. then they went out and made up a story that it was some unruly mob when it was clearly a planned attack by al qaeda. guest: i think there are a lot of problems with that. there were not watching in real time. i don't want to get into the specifics of the actual and got the attack or anything around it. however, i think there's something important to be done. the full story will be reported. there will be investigations both by the house of representatives and by the state department. republicans to control the house of representatives, by the way. we look forward to those things coming out. whether or not expect a robust surprise, and pretty sure it's not, i'm pretty sure most voters are not paying attention to it
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and are not taking a close look at it. we will see how it all plays out. -- i am pretty sure it is not the october surprise. host: there's the "washington times" -- guest: this is the nebraska senate seat and senator ben nelson is retiring. a democrat who poll numbers were not looking good, so he decided to step down. bob kerrey is now running for his old seat which he gave up 12 years ago to go back to new york. recent polls have showed the race getting a little closer, which means he's no longer down 20 but down seven points. republican state senator debra fischer is the republican nominee, she will win this race. it might be close, but closer and 20, great. we rank the 26 most likely to
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pull in the u.s. senate and nebraska is number two on a list after being number one for the entire year. i expect debra fischer to become the republican senator from nebraska. host: 3 democrats solidify their lead in senate races, that the new york times. guest: ohio is one of those races, the two sides see this almost diametrically opposed. democrats agree with most of the media and public polling that shows sherrod brown leading by the high single digits if not low double digits. republicans see a very close race. a/c republican treasurer josh mandel running a lot closer to brown even, if not ahead in one or two internal post. they might be optimisc,

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